Shinobi and Ronin don't mix
by Fifty Points of the Mind
Summary: Another crack at an NGE story in a medieval Japan setting. AU
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own NGE. I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, which this plot is loosely based on the Revenge arc.  
  
Snow can be very, very cold  
  
Snow is a very strange thing.  
  
Cold...  
  
It never really comes when you want it.  
  
So very cold...  
  
It doesn't follow the rules.  
  
They left me...  
  
It doesn't care if you're a small child.  
  
Shin, Mai, Ken...  
  
It doesn't care if you're an orphan.  
  
Oji-san, the sisters...  
  
It doesn't care if your home had been burned down.  
  
But they left me...  
  
It doesn't care if you had to see your friends burn in front of you.  
  
They left me...  
  
It doesn't care that you heard their cries of death.  
  
They promised they'd never leave me...  
  
It doesn't care if it left you all alone, the last of the damned.  
  
They promised...  
  
It doesn't care if you wanted to go with them.  
  
I wanted to go...  
  
It doesn't care that it extinguished the only way you would have been together.  
  
Was I weak?  
  
Yet it stays gentle.  
  
Take me with you...  
  
It stays beautiful.  
  
I'm alone...  
  
And it stays cold.  
  
So very cold...  
  
A young Ayanami Rei stood over the ashes of the children's home that she had stayed the most part of her short life. She dropped on her knees, clawing at the charred wood. Come back... Splinters and shards of wood and stone cut through her small hands, yet she ignored the pain and scraped on. Come back... The small girl finally stopped, hanging limp over the ruins. At first, only a single tear rolled down her cheek. But her eyes widened as what had happened finally dawned on her. More tears followed. Slowly, her once brown hair turned silvery white. And then she screamed. And screamed. And screamed. And screamed.  
  
First chapter:  
  
Well, this is it. The prologue to the story I hope will be a success. Peace out.  
  
Author's notes:  
  
I really like the NGE series, but wasn't really all that satisfied after the show ended. I really like Rurouni Kenshin but felt a little shorthanded after the OVA 's and the manga. I liked the NGE character set. I liked the Rurouni Kenshin situation set. I'm a writer. So why the hell not... 


	2. Everything has to start somewhere

Disclaimer: I don't own NGE...  
  
A sharp, searing pain shot through Rei's ribcage as a slack kick struck her chest. The thin beams of moonlight that leaked from the bars of the dark cell seemed to streak across the room as the young woman struggled to focus her eyes in the partial darkness.  
  
"Wake up, wench..." a slow, slurred voice muttered, as she felt another blow to her side. Rei struggled to get up, but her rude awakening had dulled her senses, and another kick sent her small figure crashing to the ground once more. "Feh, nothing but a slow, beaten dog..." the drunken voice said again, and the man reeled his leg back for another strike. The blow never connected.  
  
A small glint of silver flew from the crouching girl's hand towards the man's head, like a miniature bolt of lightning. The brute didn't even have time to feel the pain as the blade passed through his forehead, cleanly going through the bone, to the cerebrum and cerebellum, and finally exiting to the back of his head. The man's legs buckled, and he slumped to the floor like an oversized rag doll.  
  
Scarlet, calculating eyes scanned the room before Rei carefully stood from the flooring, slowly stepping over the carcass and taking the diminutive kunai from the wall, which had embedded itself on the obstruction while in it's flight. Taking a handful of the dull, black yakuta that she wore, Rei wiped the needle-like projectile clean.  
  
Taking in a deep breath of the dank dungeon air, Rei turned to look down upon the body on the floor. Bending down, she rolled the corpse over, checking it for any signs of identification. 'Cold' she thought as she searched the man. Nothing, she sighed with a small tinge of disgust. It was just another drunken bastard, probably fresh off the street, lured by the promise of alcohol, money, and amusement. "Well done, Rei..." a sickeningly sugarcoated voice from the cell door stated, applauding the swift murder.  
  
Rei turned her red eyes to the source of the clapping; a small barred aperture on the bolted door, her face that of indifference and slight sorrow. The man was short, balding and fat. His face was greasy and shining, but his clothes were that of a merchant. To others, he was the boss; a yakuza operator that acquired more of his money from thefts and racketeering than his daytime cover as a weapons merchant to the gullible gaijins that were like a plague to Japan's re-opened borders.  
  
"Well done indeed..." he repeated, a smug smile forming under his sullied mustache. "What do you want?" Rei said quietly, not raising her eyes, disgusted by the figure in front of her. "Oh, come now. Is that any way to speak to one that took in your worthless hide?" The man chuckled. "I apologize, then, you heartless bastard." She replied, with absolutely no emotion in her voice. "Yes, I am a bastard, aren't I..." the merchant began, laughing at this small outburst.  
  
The laugh echoed through the small cell, taunting Rei with its reverberation. A flap opened at the base of the door, and a bottle of rice wine issued forth from the panel. Rei only looked at the bottle in front of her, not uttering a single word. "The bottle's for you, in case you're wondering. I have a job that needs to be taken care of later. Consider it as a payment for what I expect to be a swift and tidy 'operation' for tonight." The boss said.  
  
Rei looked at the bottle again, and to the door. Slowly bending down, she took the flagon from the ground. Without any emotion present in her face, she uncorked the bottle...and proceeded to pour the lacquer on to the dead man's body, the alcohol shining in the moonlight.  
  
"My, such a waste..." the boss said in sarcasm as he watched the blue- haired girl's customary ritual. "...Always squandering good wine on the dead, eh, Rei?" He chuckled. "I am only giving what you promised to him, 'sir'..." Rei replied, her gaze unwavering as the last drops of sake trickled from the lip of the bottle. "As you say, Ayanami. As you say..." the man said as he closed the aperture, and walked away from the cell, knowing that tonight will be profitable once again.  
  
Rei waited as the footsteps faded away, leaving her once again isolated. Tossing the bottle to the floor near the corpse, she watched as the hundreds of small shards exploded in her cell, her claret eyes shining in the reflected moonlight...  
  
End Chapter  
  
Author's notes:  
  
This is about the fourth draft of this chapter, and I still think that I could have written it better. Anyway, I think I've pretty much got this facet of Rei's personality pegged. In this rendition, she still keeps her emotions to a minimum, but I like to toy with the idea that she can have strong outbursts every now and then. I especially like the part when she poured the wine on the thug's body, showing compassion for the dead in a macabre and twisted way. It's a little like Rurouni Kenshin's own Hiko Seijuro when he found out that Kenshin buried the three sisters by himself and Hiko used his own sake for the graves. Also, if you think that you will be seeing any of the RK cast in this fic, you won't be finding any. I like crossovers every now and then, but I want to keep this purely NGE in a sense. If anybody is wondering where the rest of the cast is, I'm taking this one step at a time, and I'll be focusing on only two or three characters per chapter. On a final note, I might have to move this story up to an R-rating on account of that it might get gorrier in further updates.  
  
-FPotM 


End file.
